Amazon rival Rakuten, a Japan-based online retailer which has been expanding around the world in recent years, has begun accepting registrations for its new bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange, Rakuten Wallet—with bitcoin and cryptocurrency investors hoping other technology companies, such as U.S. online retail giant Amazon, will follow suit. The cryptocurrency exchange is scheduled to open to the public from June this year after Rakuten received a license for its bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange late last month from the Japanese financial services regulator. So far, Amazon has resisted calls for it to begin accepting bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, with Binance's CEO Changpeng Zhao, often known simply as CZ, previously saying he expects Amazon adoption to trigger the next bitcoin bull run. CoinDeskRakuten Wallet, previously known as Everybody’s Bitcoin, was acquired by Rakuten for $2.4 million last August before being rebranded and "closed for refurbishment" in March. Rakuten first began accepting bitcoin payments back in 2015, integrating bitcoin payments processor Bitnet into its U.S. website.

Source: Forbes April 18, 2019 07:27 UTC